Friday, January 28, 2011

Paxton Gate

I’ve long suspected that I’d lost my edge, now I know it’s true. It was bound to happen; I’m an old married lady, in bed by 10 pm most nights…no longer is my finger on the pulse of the city. There was a time that when a new shop opened I knew about it. I was there…if not for the opening bash then in the first day or two of business. Of course this never has been the case in this city…I’m talking about my hip 20’s in Seattle, or even my early 30’s in Spokane. No, I’ve always been an old married lady in Portland, so I suppose it should be no surprise that it took me a full month and 25 days to find out that there is now a Paxton Gate here in Portland. Here! In Portland, the store we found and fell in love with in San Francisco is now here in Portland!

I found out about our store reading the latest Sunset magazine, of course I was there the very next day, I had to find out just what our Paxton Gate had to offer! But first before I share pictures from that visit let me take you back to October of 2009 and the San Francisco Paxton Gate….why? Well because I took pictures, and I wrote a little about our visit but I never posted about it, now is my chance! Aren’t you impressed I still had this filed away, I am...it’s so not like me. Here we go…

We found Paxton Gate in the eat.shop sf bay area book. Their tag line:”Treasures & Oddities Inspired by the Garden and Natural Sciences”…how could we pass that up? For some reason I wandered around the shop in awe without taking a single picture, until I stepped into the magical courtyard in the back (I love how so many little shops in SF have a tiny enclosed courtyard out back). It was getting dark so the pictures aren’t of the best quality but you can at least get a feel for the place. The ground was covered with tumbled pottery shards. I couldn’t resist taking my shoes off and seeing how it felt on the feet. Nice. If I had taken pictures inside the shop you would have seen a fabulous collection of tools, skulls, bones, taxidermy, fossils, minerals, jewelry…and much more, including a marvelous display of Tillandsia. This T. Bulbosa came home with us. Later that night when we returned to the hotel my artist husband, still inspired by our visit, started drawing on a notepad …I saved his sketch. So that was our visit to Paxton Gate SF….fast forward to Portland: it turns out this store is a “Licensed Brand operated under separate ownership.” Susan and Andy Brown, the owners of the Portland store are long time friends of Sean Quigley, the SF founder. While the appealing outdoor courtyard feature is missing from our version the rest of the store definitely has a similar atmosphere to the original. I met and talked with Andy during my visit, he mentioned some of the interior building materials were sourced at the near-by Rebuilding Center. A move that definitely paid off, the store feels warm and established…not fresh and new. Of course since this is a garden blog my focus was on the plants. There were several gorgeous Tillandsia… Of course a few carnivorous plants… And lots of interesting displays… And books… Plus there is a wide assortment of all the little creatures the store is known for. I’m so glad I am finally “in the know”… if by chance you’re not one of us lucky Portlanders (or San Franciscans) who can walk into Paxton Gate don't despair there is a great website: www.paxtongate.com/ (if you are in Portland the store is at 4204 N Mississippi Ave).

I was a little leery when I saw the pictures of insects, animal skulls and taxidermy. Much of that stuff that you buy in tourist shops in their country of origin is not sustainably harvested. I checked the Paxton Gate website and they say collect all of their animal specimens in an ethical manner.http://www.paxtongate.com/about.aspx

My wife would hate me if I brought home one of those bugs, but they are so cool!

d witch, maybe you should approach them about opening another off-shoot?

Ryan, thanks for doing the research, I assumed that was the case but it's good to know for sure.

Megan, pirate store! NO! I don't even remember seeing one. We went in a couple of lame book stores in that stretch and had dinner at a very loud pub...but they had good food. As for the pictures I don't remember seeing those signs, I asked in Portland to be sure.

MulchMaid...yikes! I hope you squeezed it all in!

Lag Dirt, maybe next time you head north to SF you can check them out?